Santa Monica is cracking down hard on Airbnb. In the year since passing some of the toughest regulations around of short-term rentals, it has fined 893 individual property owners and the online platforms they use to list their homes, KPCC reports.
Nearly 70 percent of those fines were issued against Airbnb, which has paid $20,000 to the city for violations, according to KPCC.
From KPCC:
Santa Monica told KPCC its enforcement strategy is working, and their analysis is showing that fewer people are advertising short-term rentals online.
That is evident if you look at Airbnb and look for Santa Monica listings. They’ve become much tougher, though not impossible, to find. A city analysis showed before the law took effect last June, there were up to 1,700 illegal rental units on Airbnb and other platforms in Santa Monica. Now the city estimates there are about 500 on just Airbnb...
In Santa Monica, it’s illegal to rent a house or a unit for less than a month, if the property owner or tenant is not staying on-site during the visitor’s stay. The city requires hosts to obtain business licenses and to pay a 14 percent hotel tax. The law went into effect last June.
Last month, the Santa Monica Lookout reported that city prosecutors had reached a settlement with a host who it had charged with not obtaining a business license. He agreed to pay $3,500 in fines.
- Why Airbnb has paid $20,000 to the city of Santa Monica [KPCC]
- Santa Monica Just Used Its Tough New Airbnb Rules to Convict a Host [Curbed LA]
- Santa Monica Just Banned Airbnb’s Biggest Moneymakers [Curbed LA]
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